2016: Our best bits

Last Friday saw our final service for 2016, giving us some time to recharge and enjoy Christmas with our nearest and dearest. As we prepare to start a new year, we’ve had a think about some of our best bits of 2016. It’s been an amazing year for us and we’re so grateful to everyone that’s supported us along the way.

Here are some of our favourite memories…

1. G joined the team in January

G plating up (Photography by Emma Harrel)

2. Supporting City College

George and Isaac at City College in February (Photography City College)

From giving students work experience at the restaurant to going back to the college to share our skills with students during their final assessment event at The Gallery, we love being able to support new local chefs. You can see Isaac encouraging students to pursue their passion in a short City College video here.

3. Alex joined the team in July

George, G, Isaac and Alex

Alex joined the team in July, just before we had the restaurant refurbished. Coming from The Pass in Horsham armed with extensive wine knowledge, he’s been a huge part of some of the changes in the restaurant since our relaunch, including the new alcoholic Sussex flight menu and juice pairings.

4. Relaunching Isaac At

Time for a change (Photography by Gill Copeland)

This year has been the most exciting for us so far, as we closed the restaurant in July and started work on a full refurbishment. It was time for us to move things forward, so we built a bigger open kitchen, updated the restaurant interior, developed new menus and most importantly… grew from a two day a week dining experience to opening five evenings as well as for Saturday lunch in September. A big change for us and we’ve loved every minute.

5. Introducing our new menu

The starter from our 2016 Christmas menu

When we relaunched in September we added our new four course set menu to our offering, alongside the full Isaac At Tasting menu experience. Perfect for diners with a little less time on their hands (or a smaller appetite!), the set menu is available Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, as well as Saturday lunchtime, priced at £35pp. The full tasting menu is still available every day, priced at £47pp.

We’ve continued to build some great relationships with some of the best independent suppliers in and around Sussex this year. One of our highlights was creating this ‘Brighton Beet-ch’ cocktail for London Cocktail Week in October, combining Brighton Gin with our beetroot, pear and apple juice. Unsurprisingly, it was a popular one with our customers!

Since Alex came on board, we’ve been tweaking our wine list to showcase some of our best local wines. As the only restaurant in Brighton to offer an exclusive English wine menu, we’re excited about 2017 and have some exciting plans for a new wine menu, which will tell you a little bit more about what you’re drinking…

9. Getting a table at Noma (Finally!)

See you in February (Photography from Noma.dk)

Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant has been on our wish list for as long as we can remember. A definite highlight for 2016 was managing to finally book a table for the team to visit in February 2017. We can’t wait!

9. Extending the Isaac At family

Our newest arrival… the EvoGro

At the end of this year we added an EvoGro to the Isaac At family, allowing us to grow our own great quality cress, salads and herbs. It’s been great to be able grow some of our own ingredients (even if they are small!), as you can’t get more local than that. We used the first of our own grow cress on the December stater and the flavours were incredible. We’re looking forward to trying some new ingredients in 2017.

10. Celebrating Sussex and the South Coast

We’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best independent local suppliers in 2016. Here we are celebrating a great year as we finished service on Friday, toasting with a glass of Ridgeview sparkling. In 2017 we’ll continue to showcase some of the finest ingredients that we find on the South Coast, creating big and bold flavours in our dishes every single week. We look forward to seeing you when we reopen from Tuesday 17th January. Book now to join us in 2017.

Here’s to an even better 2017. Thanks for all your support. Happy New Year!